EU hails Gul's visit to Armenia

08/09/2008

PARIS, France -- The EU welcomed Turkish President Abdullah Gul's weekend visit to Armenia as a chance to re-establish official contacts between the two neighbours, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Sunday (September 7th). President Nicolas Sarkozy also welcomed the move. "While the region is in the midst of a serious crisis, [his visit] is a courageous and historic gesture for Turkish-Armenian relations," Sarkozy said in a statement. France currently holds the presidency of the EU.

On Saturday, Gul became the first Turkish head of state to visit Armenia. Ankara has not established diplomatic relations with Yerevan since Armenia became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Turkey opposes Armenia's occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and Yerevan's effort to classify the killing of 1.5 million Armenian civilians by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1917 as genocide. (Hurriyet, Milliyet, Vatan - 08/09/08; Anadolu news agency - 07/09/08)